1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a storage device and a method of protecting data stored therein, and more particularly to a storage device having a fingerprint sensor and a method of protecting data therein. The invention also correlates to the patent applications to the some of the inventors: (a) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/998,722, filed on Nov. 30, 2004, and entitled “MEMORY STORAGE DEVICE WITH A FINGERPRINT SENSOR AND METHOD FOR PROTECTING THE DATA THEREIN”; and (b) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/115,212, filed on Apr. 27, 2005 and entitled “PORTABLE ENCRYPTED STORAGE DEVICE WITH BIOMETRIC IDENTIFICATION AND METHOD FOR PROTECTING THE DATA THEREIN”.
2. Description of the Related Art
The conventional method for protecting the personal data is often achieved by way of password protection. However, using the password to protect the personal data is troublesome because the user tends to forget the password and the password may also be dangerously cracked. Hence, the biometrics identification methods based on the biometrics data particular to the personal, such as the fingerprint, voice, signature, and iris, have been gradually developed in order to provide the more complete and effective data protection methods. The advantages are that the biometrics feature is always kept on the user and the user does not need to memorize the feature, the biometrics feature cannot be stolen, and the fingerprint biometrics feature protection method is strict and very convenient.
Recently, owing to the invention of the chip-type fingerprint sensor, the miniaturized electrical product incorporated with the fingerprint identification device becomes the technology that can be implemented. The associated technology can be found in the following (c) to (f) patents.
Thus, novel personal applications, such as the portable electrical products with the fingerprint identification function, have been developed. The associated arts may be found in the following patent applications to the inventor of this patent: (c) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/403,052, filed on Apr. 1, 2003, entitled “CAPACITIVE FINGERPRINT SENSOR,” and published on Oct. 9, 2003 as US20030190061A1; (d) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/434,833, filed on May 13, 2003, entitled “PRESSURE TYPE FINGERPRINT SENSOR FABRICATION METHOD,” and published on Nov. 20, 2003 as 20030215976A1; (e) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/414,214, filed on Apr. 16, 2003, and entitled “THERMOELECTRIC SENSOR FOR FINGERPRINT THERMAL IMAGING”; and (f) U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/638,371, filed on Aug. 12, 2003, and entitled “CAPACITIVE MICRO PRESSURE SENSING MEMBER AND FINGERPRINT SENSOR USING THE SAME”. Thus, novel personal applications, such as the portable electrical products with the fingerprint identification function, have been developed.
More particularly, the aspect of the storage medium protection is an important development item incorporated with the biometrics identification method. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,985 issued on Apr. 15, 1986 has disclosed a method of protecting data stored in a storage medium, wherein personal data stored in a personal ID card device is protected by way of fingerprint identification. After the fingerprint identification procedure passes, the protected data stored in the card device can be outputted for the subsequent processing or identifying procedure. The transversal dimension of this device is the same as that of the general credit card. This device, which is a completely independent fingerprint identification device for performing the fingerprint acquiring and identifying procedures, mainly includes a fingerprint sensor, an image processing and identifying module, and a memory. Even if the device is applied to the prevent personal credit card from being counterfeited, this device has a high price. For example, the image processing and identifying module needs an advanced and expensive microprocessor, such as a 32-bit RISC (Reduced Instruction Set Computer) processor or a DSP (Digital Signal Processor) chip, in addition to the fingerprint sensor, so the independent identification device cannot be popularized easily.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,213,403, EP124079A1, WO 02/42887A2, US 2003/005337, and GB2387933 patents disclose independent fingerprint identification devices, which are similar to that of U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,985 but have different interfaces.
Heretofore, the prior arts have a common feature of providing an independent fingerprint identification device including a fingerprint sensor, and a fingerprint image processing and identification IC. Such a design is intuitive and easily implemented and there is no need to install the fingerprint application program in the terminal system and the convenience of plug-and-play function may be provided. However, the prior art devices have an important problem of the high price because a fingerprint image processing and identification IC and its associated memory components have to be utilized. Usually, the IC is the 32-bit RISC or DSP in order to perform the fingerprint identification effectively. Consequently, the conventional portable storage device with a fingerprint sensor has the drawback of high cost.
In order to solve the high cost problem, it is preferred to utilize the microprocessor of the terminal host to execute the fingerprint image processing and identification so as to reduce the cost effectively. However, the prior arts do not provide a definite solution.
If the fingerprint image processing and identification works are to be transferred from the storage device to the CPU of the terminal system, the disclosed device must have the functions of causing the fingerprint application program, which includes the fingerprint image processing, identification and encrypting/decrypting sub-programs, and a fingerprint matching program, to be automatically run or executed in the terminal system so as to achieve the plug-and-play function and facilitate the usage in any other terminal system. The above-mentioned prior arts, however, do not provide this solution.
Alternatively, as shown in U.S. Patent Publication Number 2003/005337, it is possible to install the fingerprint processing and identification programs in the terminal system. Such a design, however, disables the user from using the device over various terminal systems, or the user has to spend time to laboriously install the driver and application programs first in the terminal systems before using. The conventional method is to provide an optical disk for storing the drivers for the memory and the drivers for the fingerprint sensor of the storage device so that the user can install the suitable drivers and enable the storage device to be used. In this case, each time when the computer systems are firstly set, the user has to carry the portable storage device together with the optical disk so that he or she can use the storage device in other computer systems. Although it is possible to download the driver through the network, it is not a convenient way because some computers cannot connect to the network.
Consequently, the inventor of this invention discloses, in the above-mentioned (a) and (b) patents, a method of automatically running a fingerprint identification and application program in a terminal system, wherein the storage device is divided into several regions, and one of the regions is simulated into a CD-ROM such that the terminal system regards this region as a CD-ROM device. The fingerprint identification and application program stored in this region may be run automatically. Thus, the prior art problems of high cost and installing fingerprint identification software in the computer in advance can be solved.
In the above-mentioned patents (a) and (b), the fingerprint images are processed and compared in the terminal system. After the comparison passes, a special command is outputted to inform the storage device to open the read/write authority.
Such a design still has some drawbacks. If someone can intercept the special command in the terminal host, the security of the storage device will be cracked because no fingerprint matching has to be performed.
To extend the above-mentioned (a) and (b) patents, the inventor further provides a method of protecting stored data, in which the key of the terminal system for opening the storage device is from being intercepted.